A/N: Alright, long chapter, very serious, but with some romance at the end, I swear! As you're going to figure out immediately the flashback is in Yami's POV which was very strange to write since I almost always write in third person. I really wanted to explain his character as well as I could though since he's a strange angsty sort of person in all the anime/manga/fanfics!
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW: I'm not going to explain all the stuff that goes on in this chapter since you'll read all of it. I changed some stuff but it's all based off of Season 0, so forget all that other past blah, blah, blah stuff of the more popular anime. I always wanted to try explaining how Yami got his own body!
Disclaimer: Not Mine!
*Flashback (two years ago)*
For me life was never 'normal'. Three thousand years ago in ancient Egypt I lived as a pharaoh during troubling times. To seal away a great evil I used my name in a spell along with my priests, killing all of us.
What I didn't know at the time was that my spirit would be sealed away inside of the millennium puzzle, a golden pyramid shaped pendant with the eye of Horus on it that could only be completed by the one destined to carry it.
For three thousand years I was dormant, not knowing life or death...simply existing between the two. When the puzzle was discovered and given to a boy named Mutou Yuugi he was chosen to be the one innocent and pure enough to complete the puzzle.
Once he did so he would be granted a gift –the gift of friendship and unity which I later found out was the puzzles ultimate power. It brought him friends he could trust and rely on in the forms of Katsuya Jounouchi, Hiroto Honda, Mazaki Anzu, Nosaka Miho, and Ryou Bakura over time.
During that time I was the darkness in his mind, while his soul was clean and pure I was a dark, mysterious power. When I awoke it was in a soul chamber of his mind, a horrible maze which belonged only to me.
I bided my time there, sometimes going days or even weeks without escaping that room. When I did come out it was because he unconsciously called on my power. I could see through his eyes, I could feel what he felt, and when he wasn't strong enough to face a truly evil foe I appeared in his place, taking over his body while his soul was banished to his own soul chamber.
I judged those people through a series of 'Yami no games' or 'shadow games' where the loser paid the ultimate price –their sanity. Eventually though, the boy became stronger, able to take care of himself, and I came out less and less often.
Living behind his eyes was like trying to live another person's life while not being able to contribute to any of the decisions. Even the people who recognized what I did through Yuugi only thought of me as the 'other Yuugi' and assumed I was a split personality who came out in times of trouble.
In many ways they were correct, we were nothing alike since we were created to be opposites. But I was more than a personality, I was once a living breathing human being and I had now been born again inside of him...but once the threats passed, I was then stuck inside of him.
Stuck inside that horrible room with no one else, trying to escape but knowing there was no way out. I clung to the lessons I had learned in his body through Yuugi; that friendship would prevail, that love could see me through.
But I wasn't the one those people knew. They had grown a strong bond that could not be severed by time or pain with Mutou Yuugi, an innocent but strong boy who they cared about deeply. I was no more than a strange personality twist.
When that disappeared...I was nothing to anyone. Except Yuugi. When he looked in the mirror he could only see me reflected instead of himself, his other soul blocking his view like a bad horror movie come to life.
Yuugi began to feel guilty because the spirit of the millennium puzzle, that is, me, had never done anything but fight for him and his friends and he was the only person who even saw him as a separate person with a past, present, and future rather than just another part of his own personality.
Without the millennium ring though there was no way for him to communicate with me since we were two people sharing one body and to interact one would have to leave the body for a new host. We had done this on two occasions, the moments where he realized just how much of a 'real person' I was.
When I saved his soul by battling Imori with the ancient dragon cards he didn't see me but knew what I had done, and then when we fought Yami Bakura together he finally got to see my face. I think we were both surprised to see each other, his soul trapped in a figurine while mine was trapped inside the millennium puzzle, projecting through his body.
Both times were due to ancient magic, the likes of which we did not possess on our own. He approached Ryou Bakura and begged him to use the millennium ring to give me my own body much like he had when he put Yuugi inside that figurine for his RPG game.
Ryou was frightened of the rings power though; remembering the evil spirit that possessed him and no one could blame him for that. He feared he would not be able to control it. I took control over Yuugi's body out of desperation from isolation and implored Ryou to help us.
I had met someone while 'borrowing' Yuugi's body that could control the ring and Ryou wouldn't have to have any part in it. Ryou showed great respect to me even though I was a spirit who possessed his friend; I had still saved all of his and his friend's lives in the RPG game.
He agreed to let me use the ring on one condition –that I tell him my name.
Ryou, who had been controlled by Yami Bakura, refused to believe that Yami Bakura was a part of him, merely a spirit controlling him, and having only ever seen me separate from Yuugi himself while he was in the figurine, he didn't believe the spirit of the millennium puzzle was actually Yuugi either.
He was probably the only person who thought so other than Yuugi. That point of view could only be had from someone who had experienced the possession them self.
I obliged, and told him that in the past I was the Pharaoh Atemu, but having awakened after three thousand years as the spirit inside the millennium puzzle, I would prefer to be called Yami, meaning darkness, since I had become the dark protecting spirit that judged people using Yuugi's innocent body.
Ryou was grateful to know this simple piece of information as it put his own heart at ease, and apologized for having pushed a friend in such a way. I was surprised at the use of the word 'friend' directed towards me rather than Yuugi, and it touched something deep within me though I didn't tell him so at the time.
It was also when he asked me to call him Ryou if I ever got my own body as he would call me Yami. He said that the name 'Bakura' reminded him of the dark spirit who had controlled him. The name Ryou made him feel pure again.
Taking the millennium ring I turned back to Yuugi who thanked Ryou profusely then headed back to the shop where he found Shadi waiting for him. He said the bearer of the millennium necklace had a vision of the future, informing him of the situation.
He was not sure he would be able to help 'Atemu' as he referred to me, but at the revelation that I was the spirit of the Pharaoh Atemu and Yuugi was his reincarnation he felt he owed us to at least try. Looking into the mirror with Yuugi, Shadi explained that even though he couldn't see me, by using the power of the millennium ring he could easily sense me as the ring senses millennium items and I was essentially the millennium puzzle.
He would be able to transfer my spirit into the mirror from Yuugi's body the same way Yuugi was transferred from his body into the figurine.
Using the power of the millennium key, he then planned to possess the 'spirit of the mirror' (as I was no longer the 'other Yuugi' merely connected to him through the puzzle he wore) and draw me out of the mirror.
He did not know if it would work and warned us that there were many disastrous possibilities, such as me becoming trapped inside the mirror as I was trapped inside Yuugi's body, or that when I was pulled from the mirror that my physical form would dissipate once it was no longer controlled by a millennium item.
It is this final step that would sever me from the pyramid pendant entirely. Finally, he didn't know if the physical link would remain between Yuugi and I after the spiritual was broken, meaning that if Yuugi died he didn't know if it would affect me.
To this I could only state that even if I died or the spiritual/physical links were broken, nothing could sever our emotional bond. Yuugi agreed, fearing for my life but also knowing it was no true life to remain in the puzzle for eternity, only able to come out when there was danger.
Shadi proceeded, successfully transferring my spirit into the mirror so that he could then use the key and find the single mind chamber inside the mirror, taking possession of it and calling it out of the mirror.
What appeared to be a ghostly form of me stepped out of the mirror (Or so Yuugi said. I was under possession and unaware at the time. He said it was like what Jounouchi looked like during Shadi's shadow game on the roof of the school).
Shadi used the key to command my mind to take possession of this 'body' then retreated from my mind. I immediately collapsed to the floor though the body remained solid. I don't remember much except what Yuugi and Shadi told me, but my aibou, my partner, said he panicked, trying to wake me.
Shadi rolled me over and saw the eye of Horus flickering on my forehead, only the whites showing in my physical eyes.
He said that during that time my soul was battling to take control of the physical manifestation of my spirit, and if I was strong enough I would be able to hold both my physical body and my spirit. Stretching my soul in such a way was horribly painful.
That's about all I remember from that time: the pain.
Afterwards Shadi explained that because I had lived so long in the puzzle and only physically manifested by putting Yuugi's mind in the puzzle and living in his vacant body that my mind couldn't control this illusion of a body.
He told Yuugi it could take hours before I was able to win or give in. They waited and waited and even though Shadi began to lose hope, Yuugi refused to believe that I would lose. Other than pain that is what I remember.
Someone saying over and over again that I would not lose that I could not lose.
They were alarmed when the third eye, the eye of Horus, began to flicker more slowly, dimming considerably. Meanwhile shadows began to appear in the whites of my eyes, which excited Shadi though Yuugi was, of course, confused.
First pupils then irises began to appear, colours faded as though covered by a film, slowly darkening from grey and pink to black and crimson. The third eye continued to disappear until it was nearly invisible when suddenly it disappeared altogether and my eyes closed.
Again, I have no memory of this, which bothers me, but I trust Yuugi's word above all others. At the same moment the puzzle which he was said to be gripping shattered between his hands, falling not into its original jigsaw form but into smaller, twisted pieces that then turned to dust.
I had become the millennium puzzle. No longer was my mind enslaved in it, but rather taken the object that had hosted me and turned it into a physical body.
I opened my eyes and took my first breath, looking around for a moment. Everything felt strange; I could immediately tell that I wasn't in a twisted form of Yuugi's body. There was no soul chamber, nowhere I could retreat to and no one to take my place.
I picked up the last remaining piece of the millennium puzzle, the eye of Horus piece, and watched as it disintegrated in my hand. At that moment I blacked out, once again lost to the world around me. Yuugi cried out in fear but Shadi assured him that I was merely exhausted.
The process had been completed and I survived only because of the strength of my 'ancient' spirit, though I didn't feel ancient, but for awhile I would be weak before I could fully recover. Shadi left declaring that if the 'Pharaoh's new self' was ever in need again he would know and come to my aid.
Yuugi tended to me secretly, deciding on a cover up story and looking forward to the time when I recovered enough to meet you all face to face with my own body. When I did recover though, I told Yuugi that 'our' friends weren't ready to deal with the idea that there never was an 'other Yuugi' but actually an ancient spirit possessing him.
It was too soon after the events that brought us all together for Yuugi to reveal my existence in case you saw it as him lying to you and turn on him. I could not allow that to happen.
That wasn't my only reason though.
I didn't truly believe that you would do that, as I had faith in Yuugi's friendship with you, but I knew Yuugi would accept this reasoning and not ask questions. To some degree he must have realized that I was afraid to face you but after such an ordeal he didn't have the heart to lecture me on trust.
I feared that you would not like me as a person now that I was not a part of Yuugi but I promised one day to return and make things right between us. At the time I left to make my own way in this world, entrusting Yuugi and Ryou to keep my secret.
*Present*
Yami stared at Anzu worriedly as she continued to blink rapidly after the explanation. He had used his powers to convey the story he had prepared over the last two years for the day that he would be able to explain to 'his' friends why he disappeared after getting his own body.
She stood beside him now, the first other than Yuugi or Ryou to hear that story, looking confused and strangely hurt. Turning to him something flashed across her face and suddenly her hands were on his chest, not in a loving way but in a rough shove, pushing him back into the shallow water with a cold splash.
"What the hell?" He demanded automatically, drenched in water as she stood above him trembling. One thing about this era that was easy to pick up were their curse words. She was trembling with rage, he suddenly recognized as she glared down at him.
"How...how could you think that about us?" She shouted angrily. "How could you even think that we, that I, would dislike you or treat you or Yuugi badly just because you weren't who we thought you were? I don't care if you're some sort of spirit or a damn pharaoh, you're my friend! You saved our lives a million times, and even though no one knew you were more than just a part of Yuugi's personality, that doesn't mean we wouldn't have accepted you if we knew different!" Yami stared up at her for a moment, lips slightly parted in shock.
Where had that anger come from? He was telling her his deepest darkest fears and –a memory hit him. It wasn't his memory so it was a little unclear but it was one of the strongest from his time looking through Yuugi's eyes.
Jounouchi had yelled at him, despite the fact they were in a life and death situation, and he was upset to the point of tears on Death-T four. He had yelled at him because he was upset, telling him to stop worrying about himself and remember they were all friends no matter what.
Then Anzu had drawn a smiley faces on their four hands as a symbol of their friendship. His physical hand had not been there but he had felt included in that moment all the same. Even then she had been the super glue holding him together.
Reaching out one hand he grasped the back of her knee. Her expression flickered uncertainty then she cried out as he hit the back of her leg, making the knee buckle as she collapsed towards the ground.
He got into a crouching position like lightning and caught her easily in his arms –though he did let the water splash her in small way of revenge since he was soaking wet all over again to. She looked almost comically terrified before he smiled, crimson eyes melting her resistance like butter.
"You're right, I was selfish and let my fear control me," He whispered to her, holding her tight in his arms. A slow smile began to appear on her lips despite the situation, her newly soaked hair from the ankle deep water clinging to her cheeks beautifully.
"If it makes it any better...I can't believe I wasted those two years either when I had someone like you waiting for me. Ra, you are so truly beautiful," He said almost reverently as he stroked the hair back out of her face, eyes dazed as he took her in.
The sun was almost fully set now, leaving just a glow over the water and the land. It was dusk, a beautiful time of day or night, whichever you considered it. The sky was bright even though the sun was out of sight. He winced, expression slightly pained as he looked down at her and she frowned as well.
"What's wrong?" She asked, sitting up slightly out of the water but he pinned her back down effortlessly. It was this motion that made her catch her breath, realizing the closeness of their situation much as it had been on the beach before she had her melt down.
"You know I really do like it when you touch me," She said shyly and he groaned a little shutting his eyes for a moment before opening them again.
"You shouldn't say that," He whispered torturously.
"Why not?" She asked, pressing forward as far as she could against his restraining hands as he leaned over her farther despite his intentions.
"Because it might tempt me to do something rather...compromising..." His words dropped off in a murmur as he gave in to his feelings, caressing her lips with his in a needy way. He nearly cried out with pleasure as she kissed back and it grew heated, his body lowering on top of hers so that they could be closer together, as close as they could be.
His tongue which he had kept inside his own mouth up until now reacted to his pleasure, seeking and finding hers forcefully though she enjoyed the touch just as she said she would, moaning with desire as they kissed feverishly.
It was hot and messy and just the way there first make out was meant to be as the water splashed around their movements, hands seeking to touch each other's bodies to elicit more feeling and closeness.
He started it but he had no control over how to end it when her hands found his bare chest, touching sensitive skin and muscle that went into helpless spasm under her touch, unable to control his reaction and not wanting to reign himself in either.
He nipped and sucked at her neck when it became too much for him and when his hands found her waist and touched her bare skin she pressed closer rather than pulling away.
"Don't stop," Was all she whispered before their mouths met again in a passionate fight. Only when it grew cool and the lighting grew dim did he have the presence of mind to pull himself away from her.
"We should stop," He managed through a break between their lips which was harder to find than one might think. It was particular a feet because his tongue was still roaming her mouth like it would never cease to be amazed by what it found.
She made a small sound of agreement and they broke the kiss, both breathing hard as he lay gentle kisses on her face, unable to stop his romancing completely.
"We can't let this happen again until after you graduate. It's too much for me...if this ever happened at school..." He couldn't find the words to express what he wanted to say, what he should be saying. She seemed to understand though as they both visualized their erotic embrace in the middle of the empty science classroom.
The though made him shiver, not with disgust, but with desire. That was the problem though. It was desirable. It was also something that he couldn't let happen. Even if Masahashi-sensei knew of the romance between them, it was still his responsibility to treat her as much like a student in school as he could and not take advantage of the fact that they were alone.
"You're right," She said though her tone was bitter even if she was agreeing. He chuckled breathlessly, feeling overheated despite the cool evening air.
"Don't you think it might be a little inappropriate," He whispered with hot lips brushing her ear, "If someone at school found me with my tongue down your throat?" She giggled slightly at his tone, fixing him with a seductive stare only added by her messy hair that his hands had been in moments ago and her swollen lips which had kissed into that state.
"Very inappropriate," She said in such a way to make him shudder. Somehow they managed to pick themselves up off the beach, pausing only occasionally to share a kiss, enjoying what would likely be their last private 'date' until she graduated.
"Hey Yami?" She asked, breaking the silence as she slid back into her boat, catching his hand before he could push her off.
"Yes?" He asked, sounding exhausted.
"Can we just...be together tomorrow? I know once we get back to school that we need to keep things quiet but...since we're just with our friends up here...do you think we could be a real couple for one day?" She asked pleadingly as he stared down at her, fighting with himself.
He wanted to grant her wish more than anything in the world but he knew that the other kids up here were also his students.
"They're not your students right now," She whispered, as though knowing what was going through his mind.
"You're right...of course we can. I would love to spend a day as a real couple," He said and her eyes widened at his use of the word love even if it wasn't direct. Dropping to his knees by her boat he wrapped his arm around her small frame, blocking out his fears with her familiar embrace.
She held him silently, knowing that none of this was easy for him. Eventually he picked himself back up, shutting the door on his fears again and got back in his boat once he had regained control of his emotions.
They paddled back to shore where they found Yuugi waiting with a very questioning look on his face about exactly where they had been and how they had ended up looking like they went through a tornado.
A/N: I'm sure that was very confusing for some people, and I apologize. Ask and you shall receive answers, I promise, but this is the best I could do! A brief breakdown of what happened was: 1) Yami used the power of the Ring to transfer his soul into an inanimate object, which happens twice in the season 0 anime/manga. 2) Shadi took control of his mind using the Key and made him step out of the mirror. 3) The Puzzle transformed into a body that Yami's soul could inhabitate. Hope that clears things up a bit and made it semi-decent at least...
Here's a preview for the next chapter:
"That's exactly what I mean. He had his hand on your thigh and he was hitting on you left right and centre yet you call that nothing! You don't even seem to notice that girls and guys alike melt when you smile because you're so Ra-damned sweet. I can't help wanting to punch someone out when they're trying to take you from me. I want your smile all to myself," He said in a rather urgent, possessive voice, shifting over a bit so that if he leaned down he could have kissed him.
Some Marik/Ryou progression and some revolutionshipping cuteness as well!